Reclining chair



June 12, 1956 H. M. QUAKENBUSH 2,749,970

RECLINING CHAIR Filed June 17, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet l x z 27 2/ flaw/9K0f7. Quake/mum, Z V

IN V EN TOR.

United States Patent RECLININ'G CHAIR Howard M. Quakenbush, Evansville,Ind., assignor to National Furniture Manufacturing Company, Inc,Evansville, Ind., a corporation Application June 17, 1953, Serial No.362,268

9 Claims. (Cl. 155--106) This invention relates to an article offurniture of reclining character.

It is the primary object of this invention to provide an article offurniture such as a chair or lounge which is readily adjustable to anyselected lounging or sitting position where it will automatically beretained by the weight or" the user alone, without resort to latchingmechanisms of any character or description.

The primary feature of the present invention is the construction andarrangement of the mechanism Which controls the movement of the movingparts of the article, such by way of example as the seat, and the footand back rests of a chair or lounge.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an article offurniture which embodies the features of simplicity of operation and ofconstruction. As a result there is a substantial reduction of labor andcosts in connection with its fabrication and assembly.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a chairwhich serves as a posture chair and which is designed in accordance withgood medical practice and fully relaxes the body in all positions, itbeing unnecessary for the user to operate any latching mechanisms or toretain his body in any certain position in order to achieve and maintaina state of balance.

It is a still further object of the present invention to include a footrest which is so constructed and arranged that as it moves in timedrelation with the seat of the unit the distance between it and the seatis lengthened, thereby affording a posture chair or lounge that isrelatively elongated when at the limit of its reclining position. Thustaller than average people can easily be accommodated comfortably by theinvention.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from theaccompanying drawings and the following description and claims:

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevation view of the invention inupright position with parts broken away.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation view 'of the invention in partially reclinedposition with parts thereof broken away.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation view of the invention shown in its Fig. 1upright position with the foot rest and the leg of the "foot restcontrol cam removed for purposes of better illustrating the remainder ofthe invention.

In the drawings the back rest of the article of furniture is shown at10, it comprising a substantially rectangular frame formed of the siderails 11 and the top and bottom rails 12. The arms of the chair areshown at 13 while the arm and seat frame assembly is shown generally at14, 15, 16 and 17. The seat cushion 18 is supported by the seat framecomprising the side rails 19 and the end rails 29.

The back rest, the seat and the foot rest 20a are operably associated byan assembly which includes the back hanger strap 21, the combined camand track member 22, the foot rest hanger guide 23, the cam 24, thecaster and the seat hanger strap 32. The strap 21 is suitably secured bycarriage bolts or other suitable media 26 to 2,749,970 Patentedv June12, 1956 ice the back rest side rails 11. To the lower extremity of thisstrap is pivotally connected at 27 the combined cam and track member 22which is preferably but not necessarily an inverted U-shaped channeliron which provides a track for the caster 25 fixed to the seat framemember 17.

The forward end of each track member is in the form of a yoke and ispivotally connected at 28 to the hanger guide 23. The guide is in theform of a slide and has a groove or slot 29 through which one end of thecam 24 is freely slidable. It will be observed that the free end of thecam has stop means 30 formed thereon to limit its sliding movement.

In order to permit the back rest to be swung from upright to anyselected reclining position, it is pivotally secured by the bolts 31 orany other suitable media to the arm and seat frame assembly, and moreparticularly to rails 15 thereof. The seat frame is secured to the seathanger straps 32 adjacent the rear thereof. These straps are affixed atone end by the bolts 33 or other suitable media to the side rails 19 ofthe seat frame, and at the other end are pivotally secured by theshoulder rivets or the like 34 to the back hanger straps 21. The pivot34 is adjacent, and substantially in the same vertical plane with pivot31. The other and forward end of the seat frame pivotally mounts at 35one end of the angled cam 24 which rides upon the upper surface of thecombined cam and track member 22.

From the foregoing it will be noted that the parts of the chairoperating mechanism are so constructed and arranged that there is oneparticular pivot point in the back of the frame, namely 31, and oneparticular glide locating point in the front of the frame, namely thecaster 25. The movements of the seat, the foot rest and the back restare around or over these two points. The location of these points issuch that the pivot point 31 is above the caster glide point, namely 25.With this arrangement, clockwise and counterclockwise torques are madepossible around the pivot point 31 so that a state of balance isobtained by reason of the relative positions and designs of the camsthat ride together above the caster.

In operation, when a person desires to move the chair from an upright toa lounging position or move the chair from any one position to a secondselected position it is only necessary that he apply force to upset thebalanced condition of the chair mechanism. This is done by the person.placing his arms on the chair and pushing against the upper part of theback rest with his back. This causes the back rest to exert a clockwisetorque about the. pivot 31 which overcomes the counterclockwise torqueat 27 and causes the seat frame and the member 22 to move forwardly. Byreason of the described arrangement and construction of the parts, themovement of the member 22 is appreciably faster than that of the seat.This. is because the pivot 27 is appreciably farther removed from pivot31 than is pivot 34. A rotating action is thereby set up on the footrest control member 24.

The rotating action of the back rest causes the. seat to rise upwardly(see Fig. 2). This occurs for the reason that member 22 is graduallymoved forwardly and raised over the caster, thereby rotating cam 24which bears on its upper surface. The cam is pivotally connected to theseat frame and consequently elevates it.

At the same time the foregoing described action occurs, the foot rest ismoved outwardly and upwardly, the leg end of cam 24 freely slidingthrough the groove in the foot rest hanger 23. The stop 30 limits thissliding action and in fact the movement of the entire mechanism. Whenthe stop 30 is thus engaged, the chair is at its most reclined position,i. e. full travel in the backward position has been reached.

At the point of contact of the cam 24 and the member 22 there is aslight sliding and camming action in addition to the heretoforedescribed rolling action of the member 22 on caster 25. This is becausethere is a slight differential movement between said parts which stemsfrom the fact that the radii of those parts is not the same. Thisdifferential movement sets up a frictional force which is overcome bythe operator and which is an additional force that is available forrigidity when the operator removes his pushing force from the back.

The foregoing action serves as an automatically energized brake whichassists in holding the chair in position when slight unbalancing forcesoccur due to the operator moving his arms, as in reading, gesturing andthe like. Thus the braking force permits freedom of relaxation withoutupsetting the state of balance.

Furthermore, the braking action is directly proportional in force to theweight of the occupant of the chair. That is to say, that a personweighing ninety (90) pounds will not require as much braking action tohave liberty of small movement without upsetting the balance as will aperson who has a weight of, say, two-hundred and fifty (250) pounds. Thebraking action is automatically proportioned in such a way thatregardless of the weight of the occupant, the braking action willcompensate for his slight movements and balance will be maintained.

In addition to the above described braking action, the cam 24 causes theseat to elevate to a greater degree than would be caused by the actionof the track member alone. This additional relative displacementprovides for clearance of the foot rest and the front of the cushion. Italso brings the final height of these respective members to a morepleasing posture state.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in thedrawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered asillustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood thatonly the preferred embodiment has been shown and described and that allchanges and modifications that come within the spirit of the inventionand the scope of the claims are also desired to be protected.

The invention claimed is:

1. An article of reclining furniture comprising a rigid frame, a backrest pivotally connected to said frame and having depending elements, aseat frame including upstanding members pivotally connected to saidelements, casters carried by said rigid frame adjacent the front endthereof, a foot rest including guide means, angular cams pivotallyconnected at one end to said seat frame and having their other endsslidably mounted in said guide means, and combined cam and track memberspivotally connected at one end to said depending elements and at theirother ends to said guide means, said last mentioned members bearing uponsaid casters and having their upper surfaces in engagement with saidangular cams, whereby upon the back rest being moved rearwardly saidseat frame and foot rest are moved forwardly and upwardly.

2. An article of reclining furniture as described in claim 1 whereinsaid upstanding members are pivotally connected to said elementsadjacent the upper ends of said members and wherein said combined camand track members are pivotally connected adjacent the lower ends ofsaid depending elements.

3. An article of reclining furniture as described in claim 1 whereinsaid upstanding members are pivotally connected to said dependingelements at a point below and in substantially the same vertical planeas the pivotal connection of said elements to said rigid frame when saidarticle of furniture is in its non-use upright position.

4. An article of reclining furniture as described in claim 1 whereinsaid points of pivotal connection between said depending elements andsaid rigid frame are above the bearing points of said cam and trackmembers upon said casters.

5. An article of reclining furniture comprising a rigid frame, a backrest pivotally connected to said frame and including depending hangerstraps, a seat frame including upstanding hanger straps pivotallyconnected to said first straps, casters carried by said rigid frameadjacent the front end thereof, a foot rest including hanger guides,angular cams pivotally connected to said seat frame adjacent its frontend and slidable within said guides, and combined cam and track memberspivotally connected at one end to said first straps and at their otherends to said guides, said members bearing upon said casters and havingtheir upper surfaces in engagement with said angular cams respectively,whereby upon the back rest being moved rcarwardly said seat frame andfoot rest are moved forwardly and upwardly.

6. An article of reclining furniture as described in claim 5 wherein thedistance separating the pivotal connection of said cam and track membersto said first straps from the pivotal connection of said first straps tosaid rigid frame is appreciably greater than the distance separating thepivotal connection of said second straps to said first straps from thepivotal connection of said first straps to said rigid frame.

7. An article of reclining furniture as described in claim 5 wherein thepivotal connections of said first straps to said rigid frame are abovethe bearing points of said cam and track members upon said casters.

8. An article of reclining furniture as described in claim 5 wherein thepivotal connections of said cam and track members to said hanger guidesare within the radius of that portion of said angular cams that bearsupon said casters when said article of furniture is in normal nonuseposition, whereby a combined rolling and sliding action characterizesthe relative movement of said angular cams and said track members.

9. An article of reclining furniture as described in claim 5 wherein theradii of said cam and track members and said angular cams are different,whereby the velocity of angular movement of said angular cams is greaterthan that of said track members upon said back rest being movedrearwardly.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS118,719 Heath Sept. 5, 1871 1,117,979 Cromer Nov. 24, 1914 2,604,141Maurer July 22, 1952 2,615,497 Luckhardt Oct. 28, 1952 2,658,561Caloemeyer et a1. Nov. 10, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 479,408 Canada Dec. 18,1951

